0800033 - OPERATION DOORSTEP (10:00) AND OPERATION CUE (16:00) 1953 and 1955 Color 26:00 total
This video shows Federal Civil Defense Administration film footage of the March 17, 1953, 16-kiloton ANNIE test and the May 5, 1955, 29-kiloton APPLE-2 test. Both tests were conducted at the Nevada Test Site; ANNIE being part of Operation Upshot-Knothole, and APPLE-2 being part of Operation Teapot. The titles, Operation Doorstep and Cue, were Civil Defense Program names.
In the Operation Doorstep portion, footage shows blast and thermal effects on mannequins, automobiles, and wooden frame houses. Testing of simple basement shelters and complex underground, reinforced-concrete shelters is shown. Soldiers involved in the Desert Rock V exercise are seen in their foxholes with Civil Defense leaders. Observers on “News Nob” are shown illuminated by the explosion. Stop-motion views are shown of a house blown apart by the blast wave.
The Operation Cue portion is narrated by reporter Joan Collin, who shares the sights she witnesses first-hand while observing the APPLE-2 test. From the planning phase through an actual visit to the site after the detonation, she shows viewers the potential results of the explosion and effective ways of sheltering people from the effects of a nuclear blast.
Electrical power experiments included setting up poles, lines, transformers, and a complete substation and observing the thermal and blast effects. Effects are studied on two radio towers and transmitters, a liquefied petroleum and natural gas facility with propane storage tanks, five types of completely furnished houses, rows of mannequins with standard clothing, and canned and packaged food. Spectacular footage shows the awesome destructive power of a nuclear explosion.